Thompson was tapped for this position in April 2007. Most recently, Thompson led coverage on the Gulf oil spill, covering all aspects of the crisis from beginning to when the well was finally killed. This extensive coverage made Thompson the NBC News Correspondent with the most airtime in 2010, according to the Tyndall Report. She traveled to Copenhagen to cover climate change negotiations, Greenland, Costa Rica, the Amazon, Australia and Europe to cover such issues as alternative fuels, global warming, land usage and new technologies.

From March 2005 to April 2007, Thompson served as Chief Financial correspondent reporting on financial and economic news for NBC News. Thompson has reported on the economic impact of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, the increased cost of health care and its impact on the economy, alternative fuel vehicles, identity theft, and the politics of the credit card industry. In addition, from a financial perspective, she covered the trials of Martha Stewart, Bernie Ebbers and Tyco.

In 2006, Thompson received the prestigious Gerald Loeb Award, and she was part of the "Nightly News" team that won the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Journalism Award and the Emmy Award for coverage of Hurricane Katrina. In 2004, she was awarded the Gerald Loeb Award for distinguished business and financial journalism for a series of reports that aired on "Nightly News" on the jobless economic recovery. She was also nominated for four business and financial news Emmys.

Thompson first joined NBC News in 1997 as a National correspondent, reporting on a variety stories including Daimler Benz' takeover of Chrysler, the death of John F. Kennedy Jr., and the execution of Timothy McVeigh for "Nightly News," "Today" and MSNBC.

In 2000, Thompson was NBC News' lead correspondent covering the presidential campaigns of Democratic hopeful Senator Bill Bradley and Republican hopeful Senator John McCain. She has also covered a variety of national stories including filing reports on women in business, the birth of the McCaughey septuplets, the school shooting in Paducah, Ky., the Columbine school shooting and the attack on the World Trade Center.

Before being named an NBC News correspondent, Thompson had been an award-winning general assignment reporter for WDIV-TV, the NBC affiliate in Detroit, since 1986. While at WDIV, Thompson was honored with seven Emmy Awards for a variety of stories, including her coverage of the Jessica DeBoer custody battle, a profile of Kirk Kerkorian and his attempted takeover of Chrysler, a series on two serial killers in the Detroit area, and a report on the near riots that broke out following the Detroit Pistons' championship win in 1990.

From 1983 to 1986, Thompson was a consumer reporter at KSDK-TV, the NBC affiliate in St. Louis, Mo. She began her broadcasting career at WNDU-TV in South Bend, Ind., where she served as a general assignment reporter from 1979 to 1983.

Raised and educated in Europe, Thompson received her high school diploma from the International School of Brussels in Belgium. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in American Studies from University of Notre Dame, where was elected as a member of the Board of Trustees in 2010.